Oodles of Oobleck

Published on April 9th, 2009 | By: pwray@ceramics.org

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A classic experiment/weird experience in materials science, rheology, shear stress, strain rate, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics – and gooey fun: the Oobleck Run, AKA (with a great deal of hyperbole) “walking on water.” This video was prepared for the Discovery Channel’s great new series, Time Warp.

The science behind this has significant implications, for example, understanding the dynamics behind ceramic armor and how it behaves under specific stress, strains and temperatures. There are actually quite a few videos of this and related demonstrations. A few others arehere and here, plus another odd-creepy (is the videographer really seeing a ‘cosmic girl’?) here.